Cameras Being Installed on School Buses in Lafayette Parish

When students walk into their school buses on Friday, they may notice something a little different: cameras.The Lafayette Parish School System is testing out new surveillance systems on some buses.

You may remember the video of a school bus monitor in New York being taunted by students. One student tells her, "dude, put your glasses back on, I can't stand looking at your face." Although that was an extreme situation, the Lafayette Parish School System wants to make sure if there is bullying or fighting on a school bus, they'll be able to see who is responsible.

"It takes the he said, she said out of the picture," said LPSS Transportation Director Bill Samec.

Samec says 25 camera systems will be on 25 buses. Each system has three cameras, one facing the driver and the door, one at the front of the bus and one at the rear. The cameras will also record audio.

"I think it serves the purpose that it'll protect the driver and it'll protect the student and it'll protect the school board," said Samec.

Samec says the process will be easy for administrators. They'll retrieve footage from a disc in the camera's hard drive. He says it's also easy for drivers, if something happens on the bus, the driver can press a "panic" button to mark the video.

"An administrator can go right to that point instead of having to go through hours of footage to get to the incident," he said.

Samec says this is a pilot program. The school system will evaluate the system and if successful, they plan to install more. The cameras will take the place of bus attendants, but will not replace bus attendants assigned to special-needs riders or those assigned to Pre-K and Kindergarten riders.